Vanilla and Cinnamon
by nothingtolose18
Summary: Oneshot, fluff. Charlie likes Janine. But does she like him? Charlie never knew that having an annoying younger sister could have its benefits!


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Baby-sitters Club. Ann M. Martin does. I'm just a loving fan **

**A/N: I just scribbled this down, because I was feeling the need to write a BSC fanfic, so I'm not sure how good it is.**

It was completely by accident that Charlie found the note.

Kristy had an assignment to do, and the family computer was never free. She grumbled and complained, but their parents insisted that everyone who wanted to use it got a little turn on the computer, and by that time, Kristy had about ten minutes to work on her assignment.

Janine Kishi, the older sister of one of Kristy's best friends, Claudia, had her own personal laptop. Claudia asked Janine if she would mind if Kristy used her computer, and Janine had generously agreed.

Charlie picked Kristy up from the Kishi house at 8:00 on a Wednesday night. She had had a Baby-sitters Club meeting from 5:30 to 6:00, and had then worked on her assignment and been invited to stay for supper.

Kristy bounced out of the house happily, and bounded into the front seat of Charlie's old, beat-up wreck of a car. "I got my assignment done!" she crowed, waving it proudly in Charlie's face. "See? It was an essay about whatever you wanted. So I chose to write about my best idea ever. See? Here I said about when I formed the BSC. This paragraph is where I listed the original members and in what order the new ones joined. This one - "

Kristy droned on and on as Charlie zoned out, glancing up at the window which he speculated belonged to _her. _There was something about _her_ that just made Charlie feel warm inside. Maybe it was the way her eyes crinkled adorably behind her black-rimmed glasses when someone said a joke. Maybe it was the way she smelled when she passed him in the halls, a curious mix of vanilla and - Charlie sniffed, as if to conjure up the smell right now - cinnamon? Maybe...

Kristy was looking at Charlie as if he had grown three heads. "Charlie, what are you doing?"

Charlie shook his head to snap himself out of his daze. "Um, nothing. Nothing at all."

He started up the car and drove as quickly as possible, as to get away from his chattering sister. Finally they arrived at the mansion. Kristy was still going on and on about her assignment, and was now waving it about it in his face.

"Want to read it?" she demanded. "Come on, Charlie! You want to read it, right?"

"Sure, I'll read it," Charlie snapped, if only to get her to shut up. As he began reading about Kristy praising herself up, a sliver of yellow hanging from the bottom of the last page caught his eye.

Turning so Kristy wouldn't see, he gently pried a sticky note off the back of the page. For some reason he didn't know, he stuffed it into his pocket and passed the essay back to Kristy. "It's great," he lied.

"Did you read it all?" Kristy demanded. "Do you think I should include more advertising for the BSC? I mean, I only listed our number twice..."

"It's great," Charlie lied, backing away. "I gotta go, uh .. do homework now. See ya later!"

Charlie took off like a shot, up the stairs and into his bedroom. Collapsing onto his bed, he pulled out the sticky note and looked at it for the first time.

**Janine Kishi + Charlie Thomas 3**

**JK + CT**

**Janine Thomas**

**Charlie Kishi? No..**

**Oh Charlie, if only you knew**

**I love you, oh yes I do!**

**Note to self: Never attempt poetry again. Stick with the sciences.**

Charlie felt a slow grin spread across his face, and there was nothing he could do to wipe it away. Not that he wanted to; he was perfectly content to just sit there and smile and think of _her._

--

The next day Charlie waited until he saw her exit the school. He pulled up next to her in the car and beeped the horn twice, sharply.

She glanced up, startled, and blushed a deep red once she saw who was behind the wheel, but immediately tried to brush it aside.

"Charlie! You frightened me! You've become quite the stranger. How are you?"

Charlie couldn't help but smile at her impressive use of vocabulary. "I'm pretty good, how about yourself?"

"Oh, I've been fine; busy, as usual. You know, taking classes at the community college takes up a fair amount of time."

Charlie chuckled. "I'm sure it does. Hey, do you want a lift home?"

Janine blushed right to the roots of her black hair. "Oh! Oh, my." She busily adjusted her pleated skirt and brushed imaginary dust off her immaculate white blouse. "It's very kind of you to offer, but it's just a short walk from here, as you know."

Charlie tried not to let his disappointment show. "But I ... I kind of wanted to talk to you," he finally said desperately.

Janine pushed her glasses up on her nose and stared at him, biting her lower lip in a way which Charlie found to be very cute. "Well, if you insist," she said finally, delicately stepping into the car.

"Pardon the state of this pile of junk," Charlie apologized.

Janine smiled. "Yes, Claudia said they call it the Junk Bucket," she said in a teasing tone of voice.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Yep, that's what the munchkins call it," he said. He started up the car and they began driving down the street.

He hadn't driven far before he pulled into an empty parking lot.

Janine looked at him nervously. "What - what?" she stuttered. Her hands fluttered in her lap.

"I'm sorry to freak you out," Charlie apologized. "But I have to show you something."

He pulled the now-crumpled sticky note out of his pocket and handed it to her. She read it, her face turning crimson. She finally let it drop into her lap and put her hands to her mouth. "Oh, my Lord," she finally said.

"Well, I know where Claudia gets that expression," Charlie said softly, almost to himself. "Janine. You okay?"

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" she said, ignoring him. "Janine, what an idiot you have caused yourself to be in front of him. How could you possibly..." she trailed off. "Wait. How did _you _get my note?" she demanded accusingly.

Charlie explained how he had found it.

"Please, I beg of you, pay that note no mind," Janine pleaded. "I was just scribbling down things, and - "

She was cut off by Charlie's lips pressing into hers. She didn't know what to do, and her brain mentally scrambled, attempting to figure out the answer to this new equation. Finally she just stopped and let her instincts take over.

The kiss was sweet, gentle. Janine had never been kissed before; not like this.

When they pulled away, she was gasping, but she wanted more. This time _she _was the one pulling him in to her, running her fingers through his thick brown hair. It all seemed so natural now.

"I was right," Charlie murmured, out of breath.

"What?" Janine demanded, pulling away with a flushed face.

"You do smell like vanilla and cinnamon. And you taste like it, too!"

As they leaned forward for another kiss, Charlie made a mental note to thank Kristy for being a whiny little nuisance when he returned home.

**A/N: Reviews are love. They make me so happy. :)**


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